Spain Papers Review - Thursday April 3 2008

Spain Papers Review - Thursday April 3 2008
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By h.b. - Apr 3, 2008 - 9:47 AM

Today's ABC with President and Mrs Bush

A mixture of stories on the Spanish front pages today

El Mundo leads with an exclusive today headlining ‘The judicial laziness obliged a GRAPO terrorists, recognised as a killer by the police, to be set free’.
The paper has the details on how the Supreme Court has annulled a 30 year prison sentenced handed down against Marcos Martín Ponce who had shot a 28 year old policeman in the back in Madrid. The paper has a large photo of the terrorist on the front page, complete with several piercings.
El Mundo also notes the start of the court case in Granada against the judge in Motril who left a prisoner in jail for 437 days, despite the fact that he had been found not guilty.

El Mundo reports that more than 85% of the civil servants working in the judiciary have rejected the latest pay offer and will remain on strike. The paper says they are calling for the resignation of the Minister for Justice, Bermejo, for talking to the press too early about ‘the principles of an agreement’. They want a new mediator to take part in the talks.
ABC leads with the story and says that the collapse of the justice system is closer. More than 130,000 cases are currently in limbo according to the paper and the six instruction courts in the National Court are ‘almost paralysed’.

El Mundo notes that Mariano Rajoy has appointed Cristóbal Montoro as the Partido Popular spokesman for the economy. It comes after the man, hailed as the new economic star of the party during the election campaign, Manuel Pizarro, rejected the offer.
ABC says that Manuel Pizarro and Juan Costa will have to wait until the party congress in June to see where they will be posted.

El País notes how the use of emergency services in Madrid hospitals has mushroomed over recent years. The paper says the number of people going to ‘urgencias’ has increased by 36.3% over the past eight years. Longer waiting lists and the lack of first aid treatment are given as factors.

El Mundo says that the PNV Basque Nationalist Party has limited itself to warning the ANV party that unless the latter condemns ETA violence they will call for their deputies to resign.
This is slightly at odds with El País, which says that the PNV has rectified its position and has said it will expel the ANV from 15 municipalities.

Few international stories today:
El Mundo notes what President Bush said to Zapatero at the start of the NATO summit yesterday – ‘Hola Hola Felicidades’
ABC has a photo of President and Mrs Bush arriving in Bucharest, and caption – ‘The three word summit’. This because earlier the Spanish Government had claimed that a meeting was to take place between Bush and Zapatero.
El País says that Bush has increased tension at the summit, by calling for the expansion of the organisation and the admission of new countries.

El Mundo notes that fines are to be imposed on some food companies following agreements between them to pact the price of certain foodstuffs in Spain.
El País leads with the story, and says that several emails have revealed the price fixing manoeuvres to push up the price of bread and eggs.
Público also leads with the story and headlines ‘The price of foodstuffs under suspicion’. The paper says that the monopolies commission is to fine the large producers, after finding indications that they have been making pacts on price rises. The paper gives some examples, pasta up 17.5%, bread and eggs up 11.6%, chicken up 10.1% and flour and cereals up 9.5%.

El País has a front page photo of the Spanish sculptor Antonio López. He tells the paper that he is ‘really fed up with Picasso’ and speaks of his time in Boston.

And finally,
As Barcelona debates importing water to supply the city, by train and by sea, two burst water mains in the city months ago have, according to El Mundo, been losing 9 litres of drinking water per second.

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